Police Officer Killed in London

An armed police officer has died in hospital on Friday after being severely injured by escaping armed robbers he was pursuing in east London last Saturday.

From the Telegraph:

Pc Gary Toms, who was in his 30s, was knocked down as he tried to prevent the suspects smashing through a police blockade, after a six-mile car chase.

The firearms officer was crushed against his own vehicle as he stepped out to confront the alleged robbers who police had been trapped down a cul-de-sac Leyton, east London last Saturday.

Pc Toms, who worked for Scotland Yard's firearms united CO19, joins Pc Sharon Beshenivsky – shot dead by armed robbers in November 2005 – and Broadwater Farm riots victim Keith Blakelock on the roll call of officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

He was in a marked vehicle sent out to stop a silver Chrysler after reports of an aggravated burglary in Dagenham just after 6am on Saturday.

The suspects failed to stop in Stratford and led officers on a chase through east London before pulling into the dead-end road in Leyton,where Pc Toms sustained his fatal injuries trying to prevent their escape.

Three people have been charged in connection with the robbery on April 11. Mansour-Jacques Jallow, 26, and Temitope Iyiola, 19, both of no fixed address, and Mary Fowler, 21, of Ibex House, Forest Lane, east London, appeared at Waltham Forest Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

All three were remanded in custody until June 24 when they will appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court for a plea and case management hearing.

A fourth man, 19, is being held at an east London police station after being arrested in north London on Thursday on suspicion of robbery.

Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, was among those to visit Pc Toms in hospital before his death.